Iraq and Vietnam

Here's another comparison that is of interest from Gareth Porter:

As a historian of the Vietnam War, I agree that Iraq is very different from Vietnam. Prospects for overcoming the insurgency in Iraq are much worse.

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[Mikevotes]

Good article.

The daily show made the joke, I think it was Corddry, that, "Of course Iraq is not like Vietnam..... There are no jungles in Iraq."

The other thing is that Vietnam didn't have the low burner of sectarian violence. Sure, there were pro-gov't and communist, but there wasn't the long historical conflict of the Sunnis and Shias, or the long repression of the Kurds based solely on ethnicity.

[Irish History]

I think the best statement of this reasoning is in the following article.

Iraq Is Not Vietnam
By Frederick W. Kagan , Policy Review, Dec 2005, 9 pages.
Frederick W. Kagan is resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, formerly taught hisory at West Point.

http://www.policyreview.org/134/kagan.html

I found Kagan's reasoning weak, and disagreed with much of his view of Iraq. Still, its the best rebuttal to date of the "Iraq=Vietnam" theory.

The best statement of which is, I think, by Martin van Creveld:
"Why Iraq Will End as Vietnam Did"
http://www.d-n-i.net/creveld/why_iraq_will_end_as_vietnam_did.htm